Lessons learned from COVID improve sustainability
Restrictions based on travelling during the height of the pandemic had a huge impact on a high percentage of the world’s population. Visiting family and friends and enjoying foreign holidays were severely curbed. And the business world was also affected by the inability to interact with customers and other stakeholders face to face.
For iLOQ, a company that is well known for organizing high-quality exhibitions, customer experiences, partner meetings and events and training sessions, the inability to meet in person had a major impact. However, iLOQ is also known for being a company that thrives on innovation. We very quickly started to think outside the box and find new ways to do business to ensure all our stakeholders continued to receive the highest levels of support, customer service and added value that they have come to expect from us.
Exhibitions were replaced with webinars, classroom training sessions switched to online and e-learning modules and, thanks to people’s accelerated willingness to think about new technologies, Teams became a valuable tool in our day-to-day interaction with both internal and external stakeholders.
Earlier this year, we launched our holistic 360° approach to sustainability detailing our commitment to acting sustainably in everything we do. One positive outcome of finding new ways of working as a result of the pandemic has been a significant reduction in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that result from business travel. Over the last four years, we have managed to slash our GHG emissions that relate to business travel by more than 50%.
The reduction in traveling also saved a significant amount of costs. We have been able to plough these savings back into technology development and investment in our partner channels on top of the 10% of group revenue that already goes on R&D.
Some saw COVID as a hinderance to business life, whereas iLOQ saw it as an opportunity to develop our digital capabilities, tools and technologies to better serve our stakeholders and also, in turn, have a positive impact on the environment.
Keep following our channels for more news about our sustainability actions and how we are fulfilling our commitment to both our stakeholders and the environment.
